SETTLEMENT REACHED. Between the PISCATAWAY BOARD OF EDUCATION and SHARON TAXMAN, a white business teacher who sued the board for reverse discrimination after she was laid off in favor of a black colleague with equal seniority; for $433,500; in Piscataway, N.J.

DIED. MICHAEL HUTCHENCE, 37, sultry INXS front man; reportedly by hanging himself; at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel; in Double Bay, Australia. Formed in 1977 as the Farriss Brothers (a reference to three of the five members), the Aussie band later opted for INXS--much hipper and better suited to Hutchence's hard-driving, sinewy appeal. The hit What You Need was topped by the...